Nushu

Nushu was a script created in the southwestern Hunan Province and is possibly the only language in the world created just for women. The script was created at a time when women were not allowed to learn to read or write and helped women to communicate and was then passed down from mother to daughter. Nushu looks like Chinese but its different because many of the characters represent only sounds. Nushu does not have a clear origin but may go back to A.D. 3rd century. Some believed that it was developed to facilitate the local custom of sisterhood and friends promised to be loyal to one another forever. The women would use Nushu to keep a diary that their husbands could not read. They would keep their private thoughts in these diaries. Nushu was not discovered by outsiders until the 1980's, and today it has lost its special value. Today girls learn Chinese like boys so the need for Nushu is not there and is not special like it used to be. There are not many women left that can read and write it fluently. There are many that are working to preserve the language. I have a page on my blog that has an article about the dying out of this language. Go to my page that says Interesting Article so read all about it.